A robin’s egg-glazed porcelain snuff bottle

the well potted meiping-shaped bottle with short waisted neck and recessed convex base covered overall with an even glaze composed of deep blue and turquoise splashes

height 6.7 cm

Provenance: from a Dutch private collection acquired prior to the 1980’s

The attractive glaze of this bottle shows splashes dripping down at the neck and below the shoulders, which is reminiscent of eighteenth century robin’s egg-glazed vessels. The curved inside of the lip suggests that this bottle might in fact be a miniature vase, but very suitable for containing snuff. A related bottle of double-gourd shape is illustrated in ‘Chinese Snuff Bottles, A Miniature Art from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch’, Hong Kong, 1994, pl. 178.